A very traditional style of pipe tobacco presentation providing a link with established craftsmanship of Irish tobacco blenders. Expensive top quality heavy bodied flue cured Virginias are purchased from established leaf auctions in Africa and Brazil. To this full natural flavoured tobacco is added aromatic Burley to balance and smooth the blend. Conditioned with water, the blend is slowly pressed in large steam presses for several days to meld the rich and varied aromas. The cakes are then divided into plug form, allowing the smoker to cut it and rub it out to his own preference.

The strong nutty, earthy sweet burley competes for attention with the very earthy, citrus and fruit attributes of the African and Brazilian Virginias. They also offer the slightest hint of grass. The toppings, which I think include a little tonquin as well as honey, and a little fruit, are very sweet. They sublimate and mute the strength of the tobaccos to some extent, though the toppings weaken just a mite after the half way point, and then I tend to notice more tobacco flavor, particularly the burley. Has a medium nic-hit. The plug is hard pressed and needs a little work to suit whatever your preference is. The pressing also creates a fermented sweetness to the product. The tobacco may need a little dry time. Burns slow, requires a fair amount of relights, but doesn’t leave much moisture in the bowl. Has a very pleasant after taste and the room note won’t scare people away. Not an all day smoke, but one that bears repeating if it’s something you enjoy.

This plug was from a tin that had to be 30 years or so old. I snatched it off Ebay and while the tin was very rusted, the tobacco within was in good shape.

I'm not sure I would recommend this to anyone other than those here who enjoy a powerful Virginia/Burley blend with plenty of extra flavoring added. And frankly, whatever casing was added to this stuff has fermented or something, because I smelled a true rotten fruit odor when the lid was lifted.

I needed a power saw for this Murray's Plug. Once loaded in a very small bowled Ruthenberg, I lit up and was immediately socked in the face by a strength of leaf and fullness of flavor I have seldom encountered. Overwhelming on both counts. I tasted a somewhat burnt toast type of flavor with an extremely ripe and fruity sort of aftertaste.

Although not certain, I think I may have managed a full bowl before sliding off the couch onto the floor. My oldest son (twice my size) said he then carted me off to my bedroom after wiping sweat off my forehead and drool from my mouth.

A rich and smooth VaBur plug with some sweetness from what smells and tastes like a treacle and honey combination. Much the same as I recall Warrior Plug's flavoring and profile to be like, although I haven't had that one in a few years. Also very similar to McQuaid although different component tobaccos and not as much casing as Mick McQuaid. A good medium body of nicotine but not too strong and seemingly smokes smoother in a smaller to medium sized bowl. The smoke can get a little bitter if you push it to get too hot. A solid, very dense plug of the Irish tradition and so similar to these other Irish plugs. Nutty burley with a smooth and sweet Virginia that is balanced just right with molasses an possibly honey and worth a try for the plug or Virginia/Burley fan.

Pipe Used: briars

Age When Smoked: Possibly up to a year or so of age but fairly new

Purchased From: Vendor at the NASPC pipe show

Similar Blends: Other Irish plugs such as Warrior Plug and Mick McQuaid..

It's a bit tricky for me to work out how to rate this; I HATE how hard it is to get prepared, yet I do enjoy the smoking quality from it.

Some plugs feel pretty loosely compacted, they'd almost qualify as being a Krumble Kake. Others are so firm they could be used to build a house with; that's what we have here: very solid, pretty dark, and unbelievably hard to cut.

Even though it's badged as an Aromatic, there's absolutely no falseness to the pouch's aroma, nor does it smell particularly aromatic once it's been chopped up.

For the first five minutes, the smoke has the same attribute: aside from the tobacco's, there's no extra taste. It takes a good few puffs for any flavouring to come through, and when it does, to me, a honey flavour's on top. There's also floral, fruit, and alcoholic notes, but these takes a little longer to appear.

I'd say the nicotine sits at about medium, unless deliberately inhaled, then it veers more towards being strong.

The burn from YP is good: easily initiated, medium temperature, and very steady.

Would I add Yachtsman Plug to my rotation? No, it's far too tricky to prepare. I value my time more than wanting to spend it chopping, slicing, and dicing! The quality of the smoke's really good though. If it wasn't for the time it takes to get it prepared, it would be a four star blend, but as it takes so long, I think three stars is about fair.

3 stars for this. It was very pleasant but not up in the heavens like the truly wonderful Mick Mcquaid plug. It was discontinued for a while but thankfully it is now available again. James Fox has them on their web site in Ireland. It's a rich, very traditional plug, in the navy tradition of British tobacco. It lacks any top flavouring and doesn't suffer either. Not as strong in my opinion as Warrior plug. Goes well with a morning coffee whilst perusing this site.

True to its Navy roots, this plug refuses to cooperate in rubbing out to anything closely resembling a ribbon or shag when sliced thinly and aggressively rubbed out. You get chunks, and by God you will like these chunks. Period. No debate.

This one also has its Irish roots hard wired into its DNA.

Somewhat akin to Peterson's Irish Flake in strength, density and composition. A wee bit of flavoring not apparent in Pete's offering, but not an intense "granny's panties" topping (not that I'd know anything about that comparison from personal experience).

A nice, pleasant addition to very good tobacco, very compressed in texture. Lights well, burns very slowly. No bite.

A nautical bit of weed if there ever was one. Aptly named. With its coarse texture, perfect seasoning and impeccable breeding, this is THE tobacco for smoking while pursuing an afternoon's relaxation on the water...

...or sitting on your ass reviewing pipe tobacco while sipping a lovely beverage. Once this weed reaches cruising altitude, it produces huge clouds of wonderful smoke. Just don't attempt to tame this beast with a dull knife, a shortage of matches or a bad attitude.

In terms of the tobacco, a moderate, darkish flavor, rather more burley-like than VA. The casing defeated me for a while, as this seems to pick up ghosts more easily than most, so I finally tried a new clay and got a very light berry flavor.

The plug is fairly easy to carve up and cut down. Once done, it takes a light about the same as the average plug, and stays lit very well although often as a low smoulder. Not an amazing plug, but well worth trying if you come across it.

I never had the chance to get hold of this plug before. I love flakes and plugs, my big favorite at the moment is PPP. This is why I have my problems with this tobacco now. Compared to PPP this is an old fashioned tobacco, but not in a bad way. It is heavy and bold. No problem smoking it - this is very easily ongoing smoking experince no matter which bowl I´m using. The quality of leaf is very good, handling of the chunk is as always with plugs a question of experience and preferences, whether you fold it or rub it out completely. So there is no diffenrence. The differnce comes up with mouthfeel, the reaction of your nosedrills - i definitely love va tobaccos, I also like the heavy englisch mixtures with bright latakia in it - maybe it is the burley I dislike in this mixture. Not bad at all - but not right for me at the moment. If you don´t have already tasted Mick or PPP this is propably the best choice to start with smoking plug tobacco. So recommended for experienced smokers, not for newbies.

I came upon this plug and the Tobacconist James Barber via the Internet.

A more refined plug than say, Cob or Cannon. It could be mistaken for a fudge brownie by a small child, except for the rich tobacco aroma and there are no walnuts. It is dense and moist so whittling isn't what you do, but it cuts with a utility knife. Not gooey, but close to that. Rubbing out seemed a daunting task, so I teased it to a reasonable texture. I didn't dry it and, no, it doesn't stain the fingers.

Sweet tobacco. I detected no Lakeland essence. The burn is cool and dry. Some plugs and twists turn hard, almost charcoal-like in the bowl. This stayed spongy as I tamped the powdery ash on my way down. Here is just the right blend of burley and African and Brasilian virginias to create a naturally sweet and flavorful smoke. Delicious. No bite potential. In no way harsh. A pleasant smoke as only plugs can deliver.

07/27/09 UPDATE: I am revising some of my reviews. I have given out more 4 star ratings than anything else. That practice is probably not helping. So, I am reducing Yachtsman Plug to 3 stars, not because I like it less than I did before, but because I am limiting 4 stars to fewer than 25% of all my reviews. One day I may use the 4 star rating to designate my top five.

update: going through my reviews here, i find that i'll have to downgrade a good deal of the praise i've given so many blends. 4 stars should, i feel, be reserved for the blends i find truly exceptional. so, this is downgraded a bit. end update.

slightly edited review, based on smoking it back-to-back with warrior plug:

this, on the whole, is very similar to warrior plug. they're so close that i suspect the blends in themselves are almost identical with the only real difference being the light flavouring. like warrior plug, this is first of all baked, fermented virginia with perhaps a bit less burley added, and a bit more pronounced berry (plus a smidgen tonquin-) flavour.

it is good! smokes slow and cool, with deep fermented virginia notes and a little sweetness peeping through.

i find it rather strange that warrior plug is described by the manufacturer as being more flavoured than this. perhaps the blends are different from what they used to be in their murray days, as they're now both probably made by orlik.

It's a plug! A very dense, dark, moist block of solid tobacco - not an aromatic but there's a rich and very pleasing caramel/toffee/butterscotch smell with a background of - something like - cooked black cherries. You do need a sharp knife but once sliced I found it rubbed out rather easily into moist tangled strands. It would probably benefit from a bit of time to dry - but I just stuff it in and spark up (& it burns fine). There's not much of the fruit note in the pipe, something of a (what I'm learning to describe as) Lakeland soapy floral beginning - but it's not like smoking a bar of Imperial Leather - and this fades at once. I'd agree with the noted similarity to Peterson's Irish Flake. There's no bite; there are no complicated aromatic arabesques - it's a fine straightforward tobacco; there's a healthy dose of vitamin N and the smoke is cool and plentiful. It's not, to my mind, quite as yummy and powerful as Irish Flake but it's a perfectly fine alternative to it.